While fishing, it is often desirable to employ fishing rod holders to avoid constantly holding the fishing rod with one's hands. Typical fishing rod holders are tubes attached to a boat or a dock that receive the butt of a fishing rod. This type of holder has the disadvantage of requiring a separate brace for attaching the tubes to the boat or dock. Also, these holders maintain the fishing rods in only one position.
Other known fishing rod holders are found within the upper edge or gunwale of the side or bulwark of a fishing boat. These holders are known as gunwale rod holders and are generally located on the starboard and port sides of a fishing boat. A gunwale rod holder is generally a tube that sits within the bulwark, inclined at an angle of about 30.degree. from vertical, and open at the gunwale. Fishermen using gunwale rod holders are limited to the extent that each gunwale rod holder is capable of receiving only one fishing rod. Further, since the tube is fixed within the bulwark, a fishing rod within the gunwale rod holder can point in only one direction.
Presently, it is known to place a multiple fishing rod holder within a gunwale rod holder in order to support multiple fishing rods from a single gunwale rod holder. Such fishing rod holders have multiple tubes rigidly attached to a member that is inserted into the gunwale rod holder. However, these multiple fishing rod holders do not permit fishing rods to be pivoted relative to each other while they are supported by the gunwale rod holder. Each fishing rod must be lifted out of its original tube and placed into another tube if it is desired to change the direction of the fishing rod. This type of multiple fishing rod holder is exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 4,485,579, to Hawie.